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Man of the day

Mitchell Johnson undermined England's batsmen again at the Adelaide Oval

Last Updated: 07/12/13 11:05am

It was Mitchell Johnson&#39;s day as he help reduce England to172 in their first innings.

It was Mitchell Johnson's day as he help reduce England to172 in their first innings.

On a pitch offering him little help, Johnson claimed 7-40 as England collapsed to 172 all out in reply to Australia's 570-9 declared.

All of his victims were either bowled, lbw or caught in the cordon as England once again failed to deal with the left-armer's threat.

Johnson had taken nine wickets during Australia's series-opening victory at The Gabba and backed it up with more of the same, something he had often failed to do in his younger days.

Buzz

The 32-year-old produced a post-lunch spell of 5-2-16-5 that had the crowd buzzing at the Adelaide Oval and moved Australia within sight of 2-0 lead as they bid to avoid a fourth straight Ashes series defeat to England.

Twice Johnson took wickets with successive deliveries; firstly to get rid of Matt Prior and Stuart Broad and later accounting for Graeme Swann and James Anderson. Swann and Ian Bell both survived hat-trick balls, neither of them in convincing fashion.

The moment of the day came when he bowled Broad behind his legs after a seven-minute sight-screen delay had ratcheted up the tension.

With Johnson consistently operating above 90mph and the short ball seemingly on the mind of several of England's batsmen, the half-hour between the dismissal of Stokes and Anderson provided drama to match anything found in the West End.

"It's hard to explain, to be honest," Johnson said of his stunning spell.

"It's been a lot of hard work. There were plenty of people telling me I wasn't going to play (Test cricket for Australia) again, so it's emotional for me."